Antipas

Antipas, 1

An´tipas, a person named as ’a faithful witness,’ or martyr, in Rev 2:13.

Antipas, 2

Antipas, or Herod-Antipas [HERODIAN FAMILY]

1. See HEROD ANTIPAS\par 2. A faithful martyr, in Pergamos, Jer 2:13 .\par

An’tipas. (like the father).

1. Martyr at Pergamos, Rev 2:13, and according to tradition, the bishop of that place. (A.D. before 100).

2. See Herod.

A martyr faithful unto death at Pergamos (Rev 2:13). "I know ... where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is" (the idol AEsculapius was worshipped there under the serpent form); "and thou holdest fast My name, and hast not denied My faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth." Satan, the old serpent, instigated the idol’s devotees, through the magistrates at Pergamos, to slay Antipas. Compare Rev 2:10; Rev 12:1-17.

(Α᾿ντίπας, for Α᾿ντίπατρος, Antipater; comp. Josephus, Ant. 14, 1, 3), the name of three men.

1. A son of Herod the Great by Malthace, a Samaritan (Joseph. Ant. 17, 1, 3; War, 1, 28, 4). He inherited of his father’s dominions only Galilee and Peraea (B.C. 5), as tetrarch (q.v.), with a yearly income of 200 talents (Joseph. Ant. 17, 8, 1; 11, 4); Jesus was thus within his territorial jurisdiction (Luk 23:7). He first married the daughter of the Arabian king Aretas, but afterward became enamored with Herodias, his half- brother Philip’s wife, and contracted a clandestine marriage with her, on which account the Arabian princess indignantly returned to her father (Joseph. Ant. 18, 5 1). Herodias inveigled her new husband into the execution of John the Baptist (Mat 14:4). His former father-in-law, Aretas, not long afterward (according to Josephus about one year before the death of Tiberius, i.e. A.D. 36) declared war against him, on pretense of a dispute about boundaries, but probably in reality to avenge the insult to his daughter, and entirely routed his army (Joseph. Ant. 18, 5, 1), but was obliged to desist from farther steps by the intervention of the Romans. Antipas visited Rome on the accession of Caligula, although fond of ease, at the instance of his vain and ambitious wife, in order to secure the same royal title (which is derisively ascribed to him in Mar 6:14) that his nephew Herod Agrippa had just acquired (Joseph. Ant. 18, 7, 1); but upon the accusation of the latter he was dethroned by the emperor (A.D. 39; see Ideler, Chronol. 2, 309 sq.; comp. Joseph. Ant. 18, 6, 11; 7, 2), and, together with Herodias, who would not desert him in his misfortune, banished to Lyons in Gaul (Joseph. Ant. 18, 2), not to Vienna (Euseb. Hist. Ecc 1:1-18; Ecc 11:1-10), but died in Spain (Joseph. War, 2, 9, 6), whither he eventually removed. (See Koch, De anno natali J. C. per numnu et fata Antipoe demonstrato, Helmst. 1721; comp. Zorn, Biblioth. Antiq. 1, 1021.) Although Josephus relates no great series of infamous acts on the part of Antipas, it is yet very evident that he was a frivolous prince (comp. Mar 8:15; Luk 13:32), abandoned to the pleasures of life (comp. Joseph. Ant. 18, 4, 5), destitute of firmness of character (comp. Luk 23:11), aware of his faults (Luk 9:7 sq.), yet not disinclined to arbitrary acts (Luke 13:38), whom Luke (Luk 3:19) charges with many crimes (πονηρά); as likewise Jewish tradition. paints in the most disadvantageous light (Noble, Hist. Idum. p. 251 sq.). SEE HEROD.

2. A person “of royal lineage” in Jerusalem, and city treasurer, the first man seized by the assassins during the last war with the Romans,:and soon after butchered in prison (Josephus, War, 4, 3, 4 and 5).

3. A “faithful martyr,” mentioned in Revelations 2:13. A.D. ante 100. He is said to have been one of our Savior’s first disciples, and a bishop of Pergamus, and to have been put to death in a tumult there by the priests of AEsculapius, who had a celebrated temple in that city (Eusebius, Hist. Ecc 4:1-16; Ecc 5:1-20). Tradition relates that he was burned in a brazen bull under Domitian (Acta Sanctcrum, 2, 3, 4). His day in the Greek calendar is April 11 (Menol. Gr. 3, 51).

[An’tipas]

1. A Christian of Pergamos, who was martyred. Rev 2:13.

2. Son of Herod the Great, but not called Antipas in the N.T. See HEROD.

ANTIPAS.—See Herod, No. 2.

ANTIPAS.—1. See Herod, No. 3.—2. A martyr of the church of Pergamum, mentioned only in Rev 2:13, unless some credit is to be given to the late accounts of his martyrdom. According to these, he was roasted to death in a brazen bowl in the days of Domitian. Cures of toothache were believed to be accomplished at his tomb.

Shailer Mathews.

an´ti-pas (Ἀντίπας, Antı́pas): The name is an abbreviation of Antipater: (1) A name of Herod “the tetrarch” (in Jos), son of Herod the Great, the brother of Archelaus (Mat 14:1; Luk 3:1; Luk 9:7; Act 13:1). See HEROD. (2) A martyr of the church of Pergamum, described as “my witness, my faithful one” (Rev 2:13).

(shorter form of Antipater [Jos. Ant. xiv. i. 3: ‘this Antipatros was at first called Antipas’] as Hermas is of Hermodorus, Lucas of Lucanus, and Silvas of Silvanus)

Antipas, otherwise unknown, is mentioned in Rev_2:13. Later Greek tradition made him bishop of Pergamum, martyred under Domitian by being thrown into a brazen bull which stood at the temple of Diana, and so roasted alive.* [Note: Neumann (Der Röm. Staat u. die allgemeine Kirche, 1890, i. 15) suggests that Antipas was the only martyr who suffered in Pergamum, but Ramsay (Letters to the Seven Churches, 288) maintains that he was the first of a long series.] The name has been allegorized as anti-pas (=‘against all’) or anti-papa. The character of the Apocalypse, again, admits the hypothesis that the name refers to the God Pan. Pan was worshipped at Ephesus and in many cities in Asia Minor-no record of his worship at Pergamum is extant-under the strong influences of Arcadian and Peloponnesian cults. It is not impossible, therefore, that the Christian Church at Pergamum is praised for its opposition to the heathen Pan. Cf. Balaam, Nicolaitans.

Literature.-AS [Note: S Acta Sanctorum (Bollandus).] , April, ii. [1866] 3ff., 961; Roscher [Note: oscher Roscher’s Ausführliches Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie.] , iii. 1369; H. B. Swete, Apocalypse, ad loc.; H. Alford, Gr. Test., ad loc.; W. M. Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire5, 1897, Letters to the Seven Churches, 1904; C. v. Weizsäcker, Apostolic Age, Eng. translation 1894; A. C. McGiffert, Hist. of Christianity in the Apost. Age, 1897.

W. F. Cobb.